Ok, I admit I started watching this because I couldn’t get enough of Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom. (I know, some people have just decided my judgment sucks, but hey, I thought he was the most interesting character.)

As I watch this show, I catch myself thinking from time to time…”they’re not going to go there. they can’t possibly go there.” And they go there. Threesomes, incest, drugs, murder, sex changes, stigmata, porn, sex toy dolls, you name it, they go there. And that’s just in this second season. So it’s kind of like watching a train wreck. With a lot more sex.

That’s not why I say the show is messy, though. I admire the actors for being willing and able to go some of the places they do. I say it’s messy because the emotional chaos that leads to all of these things is, as I read somewhere else, soap operatic. Everybody sleeps with everybody else’s former and current partners, not to mention the patients. Even one of the surgeon’s sons ends up in bed with two girls at the same time.

I also say it’s messy because you get to see the surgeries. I could live without those. And it sure doesn’t make liposuction look like something I’d volunteer for anytime soon.

What keeps me watching is that there is depth to the characters, and as I said, the show really does go places a lot of shows never would. I get frustrated with all of the main characters (McNamara got mad at his wife for cheating on him and trumped her a dozen times over…but nobody seems to see the problem with that; Troy [McMahon] is a womanizing jerk who never quite seems to catch hold of the goodness other characters swear is there; and Julia [McNamara’s wife] accepts the blame for something she did a long time ago as if she did it yesterday), but I think that’s intentional on the writers’ parts.

So…I enjoy watching it, sometimes more than others, but I confess that sometimes I feel a little sordid afterwards. I’d be interested in reading others’ reviews of the show!